My Future Is My Focus

tell you where I am. That's a little different. I'm with my staff today. I'm with my Elevation Church staff, my co laborers in the Gospel, my partners, my partners, my partners. You know, God is so good at his job. Bible says, if you're trust in Him with all your heart, I lean not on your own understanding. He will direct your past. When I got done preaching last week, I preached about Joseph. It took me listen an hour to get in the car after I preached because I couldn't

stop writing down what I wanted to say next. And I was telling the Lord, You're gonna make me wait seven days to say all of this that is cruel and unusual punishment, Father, Daddy, Aba God. And then I remember that we had a staff team day with all of our amazing, amazing staff, and I said, y'all got to turn on the cameras and I'll preach to them for the whole church and for the whole E fam. So that's where I'm at today. I'm not excited, I'm

fired off. I am, I am, I am so again. Welcome, Welcome to every location, Welcome to the staff, Welcome to the graphic designers, e kids, campus pastors, associate campus pastors, debutantes, derelics, delinquents, and all points in between. God has a word for you today. That's the person next to you. Do you want your word, because I'll take yours too if you don't want it. Like Chunks always looks at my plate

and says, you're gonna eat that. People who are hungry for the word is like a you're gonna eat that, I'll eat it at you know. But we want to pick up today and thank you so much for your attendance today, and thank you for the privilege of ministering the Word of God to you. It's going to be amazing, and y'all one reason I wanted to do it this way because you know, normally I'm preaching the sermon live

on Sunday mornings, and that's great, that's great. But back in the the days of the plague, right after Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai and the plague had put it where I could only have staff in the room for months and months and months. I'm not gonna say I missed that at all because it was, you know, tough time, but there was something special about those moments. I mean, I haven't had Larry Bryan in the room with me in six months. So when you

when you hear this, that's that's LB. LB is back and oh man, So wherever you are, I pray that God would bless you in a great way today. Why don't we do this. Let's go, let's go to Genesis forty nine. It's hard to call this a part two for what I shared last week about bent Knee's break chains. If you didn't hear it, I can give you the whole message. Humility brings freedom when you stop trying to control everything and manipulate everything and change everyone. But ask

God change me, change the way I see it. Then it frees you in amazing ways. So that was the message. It was a lot better than that. You can go watch it. So now I want to back up to Genesis forty nine and give you a picture of the Bible character we spoke about last week. Who was Joseph and what his father Jacob said to him before he died. Now listen to this. Jacob has been speaking to all of his sons, all twelve of them. You know him as the tribes of Israel, because those went on to

be the patriarchs that God built his nation through. But they were also troublemakers. And I'm telling you not only did they push Joseph in a pit because they were jealous of him, but they were crazy and so I mean they attacked whole cities, whole villages. And so when Jacob started talking to them, the Bible says something cool that he gave them each the blessing that was appropriate to them, and he went one by one, so he gave them each a personal word, and it concerned their

future and their purpose. But it wasn't always this polished kind of thing. One of his sons he called a raw bone donkey. Isn't that crazy? He said, you're a raw bone donkey. I think that was Isakar. He said that too, you're a raw bone donkey. And one of them, he said you're a snake by thee to one of his sons. All right, So when he gets to Joseph, you can tell how much he likes Joseph. He liked Joseph's mom. He loved Rachel, and Rachel is no longer. But I think he sees a little bit of Rachel

in Joseph's eyes because he gives him an extra long blessing. Now, first point, the one who went through the most, the one who had gone through the most, the one who endured the most, was blessed the most. So listen to this. This is what he said about Joseph. Just listen, just listen, and I'm gonna have you seated in a moment. But he said in Genesis forty nine to twenty two, Joseph is a fruitful vine, fruitful vine near a spring, whose

branches climb over a wall. With bitterness. Archers attacked him. They shot at him with hostility, but his bow remain steady, his strong arms stayed limber because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, because of your Father's God, who helps you, Because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb. Your father's blessings are greater.

Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. Say, Amen, I want to speak to you today. God gave me a word for you, and you could say it out loud, to say, my future is my focus. Say it again, my future is my focus. Now look all around you, Look all around you, look all around you, and now

look straight ahead. Say my future is my focus. Amen, you may be seated. I'm gonna teach a little bit today, can I teach? I teach a little bit too. I might preach a little too. I might preach a little teach, a little dance, a little shout a little, I might sing a little. You may hear that different than I mean it. By the way, my future is my focus, because sometimes I think we use the future as an excuse to waste today. It is possible to look so far ahead you can wreck your car looking too far

just as easily as not looking far enough. So when I say my future is my focus, I'm not talking about that that worrying spirit that tries to keep you playing out every what if scenario, like you can think of every contingency. When you get kids, you'll understand this. Those of you who are maybe hoping to have kids, you'll understand that. You will begin to plan who they're going to marry the moment you find out what sex

they are. When I married Holly, her mom pulled me aside and I love you, DDI, but she said, I've been praying for you since Holly was born. I told the Lord what kind of man to send for my daughter since the day she was born. And I'm like, did I fit the list? I am too bad? Because now I am, so you might have to adjust the list because here I am. Send me you know anyway,

that's good, But you can take it too far. Getting so focused on me and Holly will go on a walk sometimes and we'll start thinking about what if our kids marry somebody that we don't like. It's like, it's all right, Abby is eleven. She's got at least fifty more years before we let her date. Say it again. My future is my focus, and so a lot of the things that are going on in your mind. I'm just going to be honest with you. You're trying to do too much too soon. You're trying to do too

much too soon. You know that feeling you can get in a conversation where you're talking to somebody and then you take it a little too far and you can kind of back up and you say too far. This happens to me all the time because I'm a pastor and people have a certain perception of me as a pastor, and sometimes I like to let them in on what I really struggle with. And I'll say something about, you know, something that's not completely sanitized, and I'll get this sense like, oh,

too far. They can't handle that, that's too far. I get that sometimes when I'm preaching. Sometimes when i'm preaching, I'll start digging at something and I can tell Oh, this is a little too too deep, too quick. This is not a Sunday morning, This is not a Sunday morning. Point, this is something for a Bible study. This for a men's Bible study. Back it up, back it up, back it up. This is for a men's only Bible study. Oh yeah, too far, and then there's too soon, and

so that's a real danger. It's a real danger when you start trying to use today's faith to forecast tomorrow's problems. Remember the hymn writer said strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. God will never give you strength for tomorrow and hope for today. He will give you strength for today hope for tomorrow. But a lot of us get it backwards. So we want hope for today and strength for tomorrow. What do I mean? We kind of get in our minds that what's next will be better.

We get that in our minds. To a certain degree. We do the opposite of Joseph in the Bible. Joseph did not wait until he was in a position of influence, like we talked about last week, to begin to serve God with integrity. Watch this. His integrity led to his influence. It wasn't a byproduct of the influence. It wasn't when others were watching him that he started working hard. It wasn't when a great opportunity to relieve each of the famine appeared that he submitted his job application to be

the second in charge to the Pharaoh. So we see, and we saw last week. If you saw the message last week, that message last week, we covered forty years of faithfulness in Joseph's life that led him to this point of forgiveness for everything that had happened to him in his past, for everything that had happened to him at the hands of others, for everything that Joseph couldn't necessarily let go, but God helped him get over what he couldn't let go of. There's something in your life

right now that you can't let go of. But the word God is going to give you today is going to help you to get over what you can't let go of. I don't necessarily mean something that somebody did to you, although it very well could be that it could be your idea of what somebody did to you, But if we asked them, they would see it differently. So we're not talking about what somebody else did we're talking about what is happening on the inside of you say,

my future is my focus now. To get us to this place, I want to revisit Genesis fifty from last week and kind of take it a little bit deeper than what I was able to share. Let's go beneath the surface of this conversation, just to remind you. And I was telling my friend. My friend said, uh, I liked the sermon and it made me mad. I said, I did it right. I did that one right. Because if you could hear this idea that you are not in the place of God, what Joseph said, what you're

going to see in a moment. If you can hear that and it doesn't challenge you, you didn't really hear it. If you hear you are not God. And all you hear is so I have no responsibility because God's gonna do it. Then you didn't hear the message. You didn't hear the scripture. You turned the scripture into a sedative. But it doesn't strengthen you if it only sedates you. Okay, I'm not God. So I'm just gonna let God work it out. I'm just gonna let God do it y'all. God, God,

God did not preach this sermon to me. Today. I studied it. Lord, give me the message. You know. The next thing the Lord said, open your books, you know those big books. If you don't like to read your message, your blessing is in your books. So when she said I liked it, it made me mad. I said, good, because it's going to do you some good if it If it irritated you a little bit, look at this. I'm I'm gonna go through it slowly today. You ready, Concord,

Are you ready? Gaston? Are you ready? All right? Right? All right, all right, make it sure. Listen to Joseph at age fifty six, in the halftime of his life, making a decision about what he's going to do with his brothers who betrayed him, who are now kneeling before him, begging him be good to us. Remember they haven't changed, because they are still lying to him, saying, your dad wanted you to forgive us. It was Dad's idea, it was. That's like staff members who say, Pastor wants you to

be on time? Pastor, do I want you to be on time? God wants you to be on time? Not to do it pastor. But they did that, and so have you ever been here? He is having to forgive them, but they are still doing the thing that hurt him. It's one thing to forgive him. And they've been dead twenty three years. It's one thing to forgive them. And they moved to Alabama, and now that they're living in another country, I mean another state, you don't ever have to see him again. But now he's having to deal

with it in the face of his present. He's having to make a decision about his future. Let's go you ready. When Joseph's brothers verse fifteen saw that their father was dead, they said, when they saw that their father was dead, they said, come back to that in a minute. What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him. So they sent word to Joseph, say it, your father left these instructions before he died. I can't resist telling you this.

I want to save it, but I can't. He already heard from his father in chapter forty nine. He doesn't need a second hand explanation of what his father said from his dysfunctional brothers. That's why I'm glad. I have direct access to God. I have a direct line to Heaven. I have a direct connection to the heart of my father. He knipped me together, made me, stitch me, and sustains me. So I know what he said, so I'll have to

hear it secondhand. That means you don't get to dilute it or pollute it, or mix it up or twist it, because I know what he said, because he told me. Verse seventeen. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please forgive the sins of the servant of the God of your father. And he didn't even have the guts to do it face to face. They sent a messenger, and

when their message came to him, Joseph wept. Remember he noticed his emotions, but he was not controlled by his emotions. That's where you've got to get That's where I've got to get that you notice the emotions if you want to be free, but you are not controlled by the emotions. Being controlled by your emotions will always limit your future to the level of your feelings. So you will only do what's right if you feel like doing what's right. Oh, I just wasn't feeling it today. Well, those are the

times to faith it all right. So I didn't place my feelings in Christ. I placed my faith in Cross, who's greater than my feelings. And Joseph said, after he finished weeping, they came and said, we are your slaves. And he said to them Verse nineteen, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? Obvious answers no. But now to the naked eye, he kind of is because he's so powerful at this point in his life. He's not the little brother that they picked on anymore.

This boy is so blessed that they didn't even recognize him. The first trip they made to Egypt to get food, he stood right in front of them, dressed in Pharaoh's coat, not the one his father gave him. The one that they stripped from him was still in the house of the Father. But God always has a coat for me somewhere. If I I keep my character, somebody say, my future is my focus. So if I keep my character, you can have my coat. If I keep my sense of who I am, I can go through things that would

have killed somebody else's character. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yea yeah, yea yeah yeah. This is the word. This is the word. This is the word, and this is the verse that we focused on last week. And I'm gonna break it down again. He said, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, saving them any life. All right, So I want to illustrate this, all right, who can I use? I need three strong men, three

strong brothers. I need three. There we go, we'll do that. One two three, perfect, perfect perfect. Now I want you'll you'll come on up here and help me. This will be fun. This will be fun because I want you to see it like last week when I got on my knees in that sermon that wasn't for a show, that was so that the word of God, that you could carry it forward so that it would have an imprint in your life and you could ask the question,

am I in the position to make the decision? Or am I letting my pain get the best of me? So okay, So y'all line up from strongest to weakest, Come on, now, come on out, coming it right here, from strongest to weakest. Come on, come on, come in, come here, from strongest to weakest. All these campus fasters now, all right, so so stand up. I'm done with that, im. It's just a different image. I did that last week. That was last week. Y'all watch it online YouTube dot com.

Put put the strongest. I want the strongest one on that side and the weakest one on this side. That's how you want it, weakest, strongest, weakest. What did I say, which one on which side? Huh, you're the strongest, You're strongest. I want. I think I want the strongest, the close. Well, no, you're the strongest. I'm mixed up weakest. All right, we'll start with you. We're gonna call him I did this last week, but now let me illustrate it. Let's call

him bad bad Jeff Bates. Let's call him bad to represent not that he's bad, the bad things that happened in Joseph's life. Remember, you meant it to harm me, You intended it for evil. So let's say he's the bad thing. What I endeavor for you to see today is that, at this point in Joseph's life, when something bad happens to you, when's thing bad is done to you when the bad thing is because of you, all of it, all of it. I'm trying to get you to see that all things fall under the sovereignty of God.

Say sovereignty. You don't have to spell it, put it in the chat, just say it, sovereignty. The sovereignty eye before you had sovereignty, got a g in it. Sovereignty. It means that God uses sinful men to accomplish saving purposes. That's the whole book of Genesis in a nutshell, that God uses sinful women to accomplish saving purposes. You intended to harm me. God intended it for good, for the

saving salvation of many lives. So sovereignty salvation. But it was bad, and we said last week that that's so important. It was bad. Now, if Joseph spends the rest of his life, he says fifty twenty. If he spends the rest of his life in the first part of this sentence, if he spends the rest of his life, I'm looking

for you. There, there you are. If he spends the rest of his life in the first part of this sentence, you intended to harm me, Then the bad thing that happened becomes just link arms becomes a chain to who he blames for it. Check your blame, you intended to harm me. And then he starts name checking him, Ruben Simeon, Isa Car, you rob bone donkey. He starts calling the names. He didn't call is a raw bone donkey. And I'm not one hundred percent sure it was Isa Car that

he called a rob boone donkey. So somebody's fact checking me right now. But he didn't. He didn't call any of them it was good. It was is Car. He didn't call him that good app He could have spent the rest of his life put it back up p describing how they harmed him. Such a small thing to say, harm me? How much? How much time do you get to that? Because I'm telling you keep your arms light. Some of us would have spent the next fifty five years describing the first part of that sentence. And let

me tell you what it was like. First, I had to go down to I had to go down and be enslaved by the Midianites. I was picked up by the caravan. I was shoved in the back. He would have spent the rest of his life if he would, because if you start there, then you got to talk about and then I excelled in the house of Potterphar, who I served, But then his wife was crazy and his wife was kept on trying to get with me. And I mean, who can blame her? I am well

built and handsome. The Bible says that The Bible says that he was well built and handsome. He was well built and handsome, but he he didn't go into any details about Potterphar's house. He didn't go into any details about what happened after Potiphar's house, which was prison. He didn't go into any details about being forgotten in prison when he was the key to one man's freedom. He

didn't rehearse the lack of reciprocation. Now coming to the story with me, coming to don't just don't just sit there. I know Jeff and Chedd are handsome together, you know, like that and all that, But I want you to see yourself shaned to whatever you blame. You gave your power away. You gave your power away, because now watch try to get away from chet Ah. It's not gonna be that easy. It's not gonna be that easy. You are now this creates what we called last week the

shame of events that could have defined Joseph's life. You feel me. Oh, and even even sometimes I think you can blame yourself and think that that is somehow honoring to God. I thought you weren't God. Telling God you're worthless is an insult to the word that he spoke over you. And it is the opposite of worshiping God to tell him how worthless you are, because the focus is on you. So watch this, Watch this. This is a chain and what it becomes is terrible, but it

becomes bitterness. And now you got bondage. Walk with it for me. In your own life, something bad happens. Oh, that's horrible. I didn't get to finish because of them. They weren't there for me. I mean, if we just named everything that's in this room, forget about all over the world. If we just named everything that's in this room, if we name everything bad that happened in this room, I wouldn't get to preach another sermon until twenty sixty four,

all right, I wouldn't get to preach. And if we spent the rest of this day, we would still over into tomorrow. And then Yet Joseph, after after everything he's been through Genesis fifty twenty. Put it on the screen. You intended to harm me, And that's all he said about that. That's freedom. He wouldn't denial either, because he still wept. There was a process. He didn't say it the next day. He didn't say it in the pit, he didn't say it in the back of the caravan

as he's being sold in chained. But at some point his perspective became, But God, so you break it with a butt. Let me show you again, y'all. I got the I got the remedial class, the summer school. In here today, I'm gonna show you again. You intended to harm me. That was bad. Now I could blame you, I could be bitter about it, and I could spend the rest of my life. But God, show you again, show you again, get back together. Let me show you again.

Let me show you till you see yourself interrupting what the enemy said to destroy you. And you could break it with a butt. God, you can break it. So so I'm looking now. Now I'm looking. My future is my focus. So I'm looking for everything in my life that has me in bondage, and I'm looking to put a butt right here to see what God is gonna do next. I need thirty of doll I need thirty people in a Hammond B three to praise God, not no power to break it. He's say, in your praise,

in your perspective, in your purpose, get together. That's how you break a chain. That's how they left me. But God has somebody else for me. They hurt me, but God healed me. He's healing me right now. Somebody's saying in the chat, but God, but God, I feel like preaching in this room today wright. God is breaking saying, I'm serious enough. You can break it with a foot in our sin. But God, you meant it for evil.

But dah, the weapon was formed against me, but it didn't prosper because I'm still breathing, living, balking, dunking oven. But God, by God, but God, but God, Bah, break that thing. I can break that thing. You break it before it breaks you. You hear me, You break it before it breaks you. So start interrupting yourself and start you'll go, y'all go sit down. I almost played Red Rover, Red Rover, Sin Joseph right over who Red Rover, Red Rover,

Red Rover, Red Rover. Y'all didn't play that game. Uh, y'all play the blame game, the blame game, the blame game. Yeah, man, I'll tell you. Let me talk to the staff for a minute. I'll be right back with the whole church if my supervisor would let me. But you didn't do the last thing they ask you. I'm gonna leave y'all alone. I promise, I promise. I'm going on my summer break soon. Y'all won't have to put up with me for a while.

But I want you to begin. Let's get very practical to interrupt your self, defeating God, dethroning self talk with a butt And when you say but, it signals to your brain we're moving on. We're changing the focus, because my focus is my future. They say you can't change the past. That's not true. Certainly you can't reconstruct the events. But do you really think you remember it exactly as it was? And do you really believe that you are at the point in your life when you can fully

understand why it happened how it happened. When the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph, I want you to understand that was written years after, decades after the events had transpired, after he wept forgave, wept forgave, wept forgave, wept forgave, And you have to do that sometime and every time you find yourself stuck in that first part you intended. I sometimes see these things and I don't show them like I should put Verse twenty back up. But God, that's how you break the chain. That's how

you get set free to live beyond your feelings. That's how you break it. Addiction, not just forgiveness, bitterness, blame. That's how you break any cycle in your life. You have got to interrupt it every time it happens, even if you weep five times to get there. Every time, if you weep five, you worship five. If the enemy attacks five, you interrupt five. But God intended it for good to accomplish. Ah Ah, what is now being done?

I thought we were appreciate about the future. Well, the only way that you can affect the future is to be faithful. Right now, let me give it to you like this. Everything God wants to do next in your life is connected to what He is calling you to do now. It took Joseph's attitude in the prison to interpret someone else's dreams while he himself was still in a dungeon to bring him to the place where he could be everything God called him to be, and not

just for himself, but for others. Because some of the things that you're fighting with are not for you, they are for your children. I don't have children yet. No, I'm not talking about I'm not talking about your view of things. I'm talking about God's view of things. He already sees them at six foot two and you're only sixteen. Yeah, that's how God works, right. So he says I had

plans to give you a hope in a future. And when we say, but God, I just think about how this needs to operate in my life when I'm saying hm, when I'm saying and the church now is not what it was before the pandemic. But God brought people into our church through the pandemic that would have never even gone to church if there were not a pandemic. Because if you just let the enemy attack you, attack you, and you don't learn to interrupt him, it just strengthens

the chain. It becomes bondage. Your belief becomes your bondage, your belief that was Joseph's belief. God is using this for good and everything that I went through that wasn't good when God, I don't know if you've ever heard a preacher say God will work it out. That's cool. Let me give you one better. God will work it in. God will work it in. Whatever happens to you, God

will work it in. One time, I was preaching about the woman who worshiped Jesus, and I was talking about how she poured it on his feet, how she poured the oil on his feet to annoy him, and how everybody thought it was a waste. And I was preaching so hard. It was only about one hundred and fifty people in the room, not even this many who are here with the staff today. It was about one hundred and fifty people in the room. But I was preaching so hard, man, because I don't just preach big when

the crowd's big. I don't just do it big when a lot of people are watching. Never did ask Holly. When we travel go, I don't do everything right. But

I've always been passionate about this. I used to travel to little, tiny little churches, tiny little crowds, and the first place we would stop was Walmart, and go to the Walmart in that town, and I would buy a mirror for five dollars and ninety seven cents out in my pocket because they didn't pay for it out of the ministry fund at the college ministry team that we were interning with, So we would go to the walmart. I knew exactly what i'le I had to find the

mirror on. I would get the mirror and I'd stand up and preach to those kids, and I've had a hammer in the van, and I'd start preaching about the image of God, and I'd hold up the mirror and I was then a get real condemnation oriented, and I'd take the mirror and I start smashing the mirror. And I did it all the way until a kid got a piece of mirror in his eye, and the parents almost sued me. But I prayed, and the Lord is faithful, all right, But so don't I don't preach, And you

need to start. You need to stop waiting for it to discover what God has put in you, because if you don't have it in the prison, you won't have it in the palace. And I was preaching with a worship night and I was flailing my arms and my water fell over I was so embarrassed my water falls and spills, and it totally broke the flow my message until I realized, don't cry over spilt water. Work it in.

And since I happened to be preaching about the woman who poured out or oil, the image kind of fig because it was fluid, you know, And so if you stay fluid like that, you got to be fluid in those moments. You got to be fluid in those moments. You got to be fluid in those moments. And all of a sudden, I said, just like that, water hit that ground, and y'all are all wondering if I did it on purpose. Some of the things in your life that you're wondering, is this on purpose? You've got to

turn it to worship. And other people will see it as a waste, but you got to turn it into worship. Hey, y'all, when I say, when I say, that was better than any illustration I ever could have planned, because I worked it in. And Joseph MA message to you today is not gotta work it out. Just future is your focus.

God'll do it later, God'll send it when you need it. No, no, no, no, no, he said, it is what is now being done this season of your life, this moment of your marriage, this moment of your ministry, this moment of your business, this moment in your heart, this moment where you're deciding, am I going to go see a counselor or not? Am I going to work through this or not? Am I going to keep repeating these same powerless patterns? Am I going to take my power back? You said, well, no,

I don't have power. God has power, right, And in Acts one eight, he said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, but you give your power away every time you stay focused on what happened. Genesis fifty twety is good. Oh, we could stay here all day, but we got to move. Genesis fifty twenty. You intended to harm me. You can change the past this way. I told Jared right before I came out.

This came to me. Put harm on the board, Put harm on the center screen, and zoom out so everyone can see it. Oh, it's coming on that screen. That's right, Jared, I forgot. We did it like that. There it is, there is there is. You intended to harm me. Okay, so let me break this down. I hope this makes sense because it's a lot. He was putting on my mic, and I told him to do this. You can change the meaning of that by what you put after it. Put the letter O in Why what comes after that?

What comes after that? And now you will be reminded of the New Testament companion verse of Genesis fifty twenty. All things work together. What's harmony? What's harmony? What's harmony? What's harmony? What's harmony? It's when I take one note, play one note, play one note, and when I take another note, and it's not the same note. But when I put them together together, together, together, together, together together.

You hear this. You have got to let God bring this thing together, because it's what comes after the attack. He said, he said, let me tell you what Jacob said. Let me tell what Jacob said about Joseph. He said, he is a fruitful vine. Somebody say, fruitful vine, A fruitful vine, a fruitful vine who climbed over a wall. He climbed over a wall, He climbed over a wall. I wonder what wall you think is stopping God from doing what he's doing in your life? Right now, give

me my verse again in Genesis forty nine. I got to show you this. He's a fruitful vine who climbed over a wall. So question, are you going to be defined by what stood against you or how you got over it? I'll tell you something right now. I want to find out what's on the other side of the wall. Because people don't put off walls unless they're concerned about something on the other side. So whatever the devil has been fighting you with, I just wonder why he's so

threatened and worried about you getting through it. What's on the other side. It's what I want to find out for Joseph. For Joseph, he saved the whole nation, He preserved his entire family and posterity, And I wonder what's on the other side of your wall. Now, we probably wouldn't have called Joseph a vine, would we by our definitions, Because you know, we live in the days where everybody gets a trophy, everybody gets a ribon everybody. Oh, I'm

so sorry. You didn't get what you wanted. You didn't get your seat, you didn't get your opportunity, you didn't get to serve where you want to serve. You didn't get the feedback you wanted. Nobody told me it was good. So if we had been Jacob, think of how we would have spoke to Joseph, because he's going through their life and he's defining their life as their father, and

he's saying some things to each of them. So Genesis forty nine, twenty two, he gets to Joseph, you raw boned donkey, you snake by the road, talking to all out of the brothers, he gets to Joseph. He's a Joseph a vine. But I thought he was a victim. But his father called him a vine. But he was a victim. But he was a vine. But he was a victim. And what made him a vine was what he climbed over. You ready, what he climbed over and what he brought forth. Because he's not just any vine.

He's a fruitful vibe. Tell somebody I got something to give. No, I'm not just surviving for me. I've got something special. I've got something to give. It will be the fruit of what I've been through that will preserve my purpose. Sitting next to a fruitful vine. Wow, look at that fruit. Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. And he's not just a vine. He doesn't just talk about a wall

and he doesn't really describe the wall. I love it. Yeah, he care what kind of wall doesn't matter, matters more what the vine was made of than what the wall was made of. And because listen, this is this is the this is the meaning of a fruitful vine, because you are abiding in Christ, because you are choosing and deciding to focus on what He is doing, not what you have been through, but what you are bringing forth. And that's how you interrupted with a butt. Well that

was horrible, but God was there with us. Did you ever watch somebody die in it? Horrible, but there was a grace that was almost more reel than the air that you breathed. And you almost feel sorry for the people who weren't there because of the grace that grew from the grief of that moment. That's what I mean by interrupting it with a butt, That's what I mean. So that you don't stay chained to the way things went down, so that you don't stay chained to what

other people called you. The only reason that Joseph was able to do what he did in chapter fifty is because of what his father said in Genesis forty nine. She got to hear it firsthand from your father. Some of you didn't have an earthly father who told you this. So now God is speaking this over you. You're more than a conqueror. You're an overcomer. Is he that is in you? Then the wall that is in the world.

Climb or die? Climb or die. You turn around the first wall you see, the first rejection, you get, the first know you here, the first relapse you turn around, he said, Joseph climbed over stuff that would have killed others. And by the way, I'm gonna say this, and if it was for you, send me a message. It's almost impossible to climb over something while you're complaining about it. Get it out of your system. Tell who you need to tell. But then start climbing and start bringing forth

what you're supposed to bring forth. And ask the question, let me see how I wrote it down in my notes. I write all these notes and I never look at them, and I try to mess him up. Sometimes it was something along the line, not God, why am I going through this? But God, what are you bringing forth? Show me what you are doing through this that is for the benefit of others. Like Paul said, he comforts us with the comfort by which others may be comforted. That's

a generational way of thinking about your faith. Now, faith is a fight, ye, faith is a fight. It's a fight for focus. It's a fight for focus. Not fighting against people. You're not fighting against Reuben and Simeon and all. You're fighting for your focus. And it's the fight of your life, right because how can God bring it into harmony? If you die on the vine? He said, he's a vine climbing over a wall. I had a great picture, a fruitful vine. You raw boned donkey, you snake by

the road, You fruitful vine, you fruitful vine. You're gonna be defined by what stood against you. The next image is cool too. One of those images is kind of pretty, and the other one is grisly. I like this grisly image, you know what I'm saying. I like this testosterone prophecy that he gives it. Give me the next verse twenty three with bitterness. Archers attacked him. They shot at him

with hostility. You intended to harm me. So, when Jacob says it's to Joseph before he dies, at the moment that Joseph is standing before his brother's making the decision about what comes next in his life, He still has this picture of the fact that every arrow that was shot at him missed. But he went to prison, but he didn't take his purpose. But he was thrown in a pit, but it didn't take his purpose. That was the word that kept comingto my mind when I said

my future is my focus. I kept thinking about about preference and then purpose, and I thought that what Joseph was meaning when he said, you hit me with your best shot, but it didn't work. You tried to kill me. He didn't say it didn't hurt. He said, it didn't move me from my purpose. In fact, it was the exact thing that God used to bring me to this place where I could stand in my purpose and fulfill the promise that God gave to the nation. Isn't that awesome?

So Jacob said, they shot him. They attacked him with bitterness. It was their bitterness, not his. He didn't let it in. He didn't let it in. They shot it at him, but it didn't get in. That's the challenge, y'all. Don't let it get in. Don't let it get in. Deal with it, acknowledge it, notice it, but do not let it define you. Whatever it is, let God work it in let God work it in so you could be

like Joseph. I never shot a bow and arrow in my life, so I might look stupid doing this, But it said his bow Verse twenty four remained steady and his strong arms stayed limber only because the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel. Now I want you to see what I saw in the spirit. It's a picture of Joseph, through all of the pain that he went through, never lost his focus. That's what you do when you aim right. You got to focus. You know how heart it is

to focus when you got everything flying at you. We went out on tour a couple weeks ago. Every night was such a challenge because it was big rooms. And when I preach at our church, everybody's paying attention, taking notes, and nobody's bored. Y'all. In those arenas, there are people there that are literally praising God with one hand, eating popcorn with another, got a chicken finger in their beard, and talking about you know, oh God, my God, I

need you. It's very distracting. And I'm sitting there one night, I'm about to preach in a few minutes, and I'm like, God, this is so distracting. I can't even focus on the word. Look at that guy down there. I think he has a beer. They're selling beer. No, they don't sell alcoholic. That's it looks like a beer. And I'm a it's almost like I'm I'm saying, God, I can't preach with all these distractions. And the Lord exactly. The Lord was like,

whose eyeballs? Who's whose sockets are your eyeballs in? You know, at anytime you can stop watching mister chicken fingers. And if you look three seats over, look at look at those three guys right there, and and and these three big, big guys had their arms around each other. I mean big, wouldn't it You remember big guys? And I'm like, oh, yea, there's way more people worshiping God then sitting here getting a snack. But it's up to me to focus on what I want more of? Am I doing it close

to right? I never shot a bow when arrow before? Does it look bad? Am I gonna get mean for this? I'm just trying to give a picture. When I read it, it it said the archers put the verse up. The archers shot at him, but his bow remains steady his bow, his bow, not their bow. It's not their bow that matters. It's not there. If you get that. I know you're twenty four, I know you haven't been through a lot of life yet. But I'm telling you you can be

attacked on every side. You can be attacked by everything. You can be attacked by the worst thing Hell has to throw at you. But if your bow stays steady, if your gaze stays on God, if you let me give it to you like this, if you point toward your purpose, your purpose, your purpose. It's about purpose. It's about purpose. It's not about problems. It's about walls and weapons. It's about what you climb over. And it's about what

you focus on. And that is the message God gave me to give you, is that he has put a hope in a future ahead of you. But you will not see this future by watching somebody else's bow. Your future, your fruit, your future, your focus. They do what they do, They are who they are, They say what they say, They go where they go, they leave, when they leave, they stay when they stay. They are not God. I am not God. He is the Holy One. He is my rock. He is not fortress takes my hands strong,

He teaches my fingers to walk. And all I gotta do, baby, is hold that focus and point toward my purpose. To know that in all things, the good notes and the bad notes work in harmony. You mint it to harm me, But God took what you did to harm me. That was the bow and shot me to Egypt. I was the arrow, and I am where I am, not because of the schemes of men or the failed plans, but because of the purpose of God. Oh Lord, send this word where it's supposed to go today. Send it like

an arrow flying through the night sky. Send it like an arrow. Send it like a weapon that they can that they can use against the enemy in the dark night of their soul. Send it, Lord, Send You sent Joseph ahead of his brothers to Egypt where they sold him. You sent him where they sold him. I want to bring before you again today, Lord, all of the things that are in all of the hearts of all of these people that they cannot name. It's too painful to name.

Some of it they didn't even quite come to terms with. Yet they can't even really verbalize it. And yet I know that alongside each deep trauma and every breaking disappointment and crushing betrayal. There are those little things, those little foxes, that spoil the vine. Sometimes the wall that we can't climb over is only two inches high. Sometimes it's not the height of the wall. Sometimes it's the lack of

our strength because we are not rooted in you. I would pray today, God, that on our staff and in our church, that you would raise up Joseph's that even today, as I have spoken, that you've been pointing to purpose. Now we don't always know what that purpose is. But God, we're shifting now from you intended to harm me, and we're going to what comes after that comma. But God and I thank you that you are using everything that

they've been through. I speak now to childhood abandonment. I speak to the anger that you feel that you can't contain. Sometimes I speak to the isolation that is a byproduct of your insecurity. There is enough in you to climb over it. There is enough in you to climb over it, y'all. I don't have to yell to preach a powerful thing. And what I just said is worthy of your meditation. There is enough in you, the spirit of God, the

fruit of the spirit. Love is joy, his peace is patience, is kindness, is goodness, is faithfulness, it's jealous his self control. All of that is yours. And you will receive power. Power to get up out of the pit, power to do what you were sent to do in the prison, power to do what you were intended to do in the palace. Power to point toward your purpose in every painful season of your life. My focus is my future.

When I said that title, I intended for you to hear it two ways, And one is that you stop focusing so much on the bad things that happen and blaming people who aren't even here to pay for it anymore, and becoming bitter in your own soul, and that you would break that chain. But I also meant it as a prophecy that the future you experience is going to

be based on the focus you choose right now. So if you don't get some help with this, if you don't own it, if you don't submit it to God, if you don't get like Joseph and say I will provide for you, I will do what I'm supposed to do, your future is just going to look like more and more of the same frustration you're living in right now. But it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way because the chain breaker is in the room. But God, how will you finish the sentence?

How will you finish the sentence? You know first, the first eighteen years of my life were rough, but God made them up to me. But God, how will you finish the sentence? When you go to prison, they call it a prison sentence. And Joseph refuse to stay chained one more day. He said, I've been in prison long enough. I'm not going back. I'm not going back in my memory to the prison that God brought me out of. In my reality, I'm moving into my future. That's my focus.

How can God use what I've been through? Oh, it gets glorious when you ask that. And I came to attack not only every devil of your past, but every devil of your own regrets, not only what happened to you, but what you keep saying to yourself about it. I came to beat every should have, could have wooded devil off your shoulder today in the name of the Lord.

Every should have could have wood a devil, Every should have could have would have if you'd have done this, and if you'd have done that, it wouldn't end it like that. Why would you bow to a should have could have wood, a devil when you got a sure enough gonna God who is able to do. I got a sure enough gonna God who is sure enough gonna bless you and blessing I will bless you, and multiplied,

I will multiply this. That's the promise. I stand on the Rock of Israel, on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking. Same, all other ground is sinking. Sam Father, I thank you today that the boast a steady because of the strong hand of God. I want you to lift your hands right now and worship God, knowing that it's his hands that are holding up your hands, that it is His purpose that is aiming your bow.

And with your hands lifted up and with your heart filled with faith, I want you to say again what we said an hour ago, but I want you to say it with faith. My future is my focus. I'm going forward in the name of the Lord. Now, let's give him thanks and praise on every location. Thanks and praise, Thanks and praise with your mouth, with your mouth, with

your mouth, the fruit of Liss. That's confesses Well. If you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd love for you to to make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.